World Language Support

With its implementation of Unicode, InDesign® makes multilingual publishing of non-English languages much easier than ever before. This section provides resource information for understanding language support issues, including those for Asian and Middle Eastern languages, and for finding multilanguage service providers who specialize in this area.

CJK Usage Survey
If you work at all with Chinese, Japanese, or Korean (CJK) text, Adobe would like to hear from you. If you'd like to have more CJK features in InDesign, please take a moment and fill out this simple questionnaire hosted on behalf of Adobe: http://www.techart.com/idsurvey/.

CJK Template for English version
While the English version of InDesign allows you to input or import CJK text, it lacks the ability to compose these languages correctly, with proper line breaks and spacing, among other things. Developed with assistance from Adobe, these templates allow you to introduce Japanese or Chinese composition rules into English InDesign using paragraph styles. They also allows you to introduce vertical Chinese or Japanese text into your English documents: http://www.techart.com/downloads/.

InDesign and World Languages
This white paper, originally presented at the InDesign Conference, gives an overview of using InDesign for publishing in non-English languages, including Eastern European, East Asian, and Middle Eastern languages. It also includes a product/language comparison chart between the various language versions of InDesign, QuarkXPress, and Passport.

Download whitepaper [PDF: 996 KB]  

Language Versions
Unicode support in InDesign makes it one of the best tools for multilingual publishing, and there are several different language versions of the product.

In addition to InDesign CS2 English/International version, which has support for English, Western European, and Central European languages, there is InDesign CS2 ME, which supports Middle Eastern languages, such as Arabic, Farsi, and Hebrew. This version is available in the United States from Fontworld. Chinese, Japanese, and Korean versions are available from Asiasoft, but please note these versions do not have an English interface.

Multilanguage Service Providers
A partial list of the services offered by the following organizations include language translation, graphic design (for print, web, and interactive), film output, and project management services.

Multilanguage Service Providers

• TransPacific Digital (formerly TechArt International)
• WorldAccent